AUGUSTA — An Augusta woman arrested Sunday night in connection with a exchange of gunfire in the Wal-Mart parking lot made her first court appearance Friday when the state asked that her probation be revoked for at least six months so she can complete a long-term inpatient addiction recovery program.
Samantha E. Tupper, 24, had been on probation for two months on a drug trafficking conviction when she was arrested Sunday night. She was one of four people arrested after a fight over drug money during which shots were fired.
In court documents, probation officer Robert Lamarre wrote that Officer Brian Wastella, of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, discussed the shooting with some of those involved.
“[I]t appeared that the argument and shootout was over money owed for illegal drugs,” Lamarre wrote. “Agent Wastella related that at some point each male fired a gun at the other vehicles’ occupants, but that nobody was injured and the four individuals were approached and put to the ground by other Wal-Mart patrons who were legally carrying their own handguns and secured the scene until law enforcement arrived.”
The motion indicates the state will be filing a new charge against Tupper of unlawful furnishing of heroin that allegedly occurred June 26, and the state will seek to have her probation revoked because Tupper violated her probation after she admitted on June 27 to possessing and using heroin.
Lamarre also said Wastella told him police located “a few grams of heroin” in Tupper’s vehicle.
“It’s clear there is a substance abuse, opioid addiction component with Tupper,” Lamare wrote in recommending that if the probation revocation does not include a prison sentence (which requires a sentence of at least nine months and one day), “this officer strongly recommends Tupper complete a longterm inpatient addiction recovery program.”
Lamarre also recommended adding a probation condition banning Tupper from associating “with known drug users and/or drug dealers.”
On Friday at a court hearing via video from the Kennebec County jail, Tupper formally denied violating probation. Defense attorney Lisa Whittier asked that Tupper be held without bail until a bed-to-bed transfer could be arranged for an inpatient drug treatment facility.
However, Assistant Attorney General Katie Sibley objected to that arrangement, telling Justice Michaela Murphy that the state wanted a number of conditions on any bail for Tupper.
In the end, Murphy agreed to hold Tupper without bail on the probation revocation motion and told the attorneys to work out a joint proposal for the court to consider that would allow a transfer for inpatient treatment.
Tupper’s next court hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. July 28.
She had been sentenced on May 2 at the Capital Judicial Center on a conviction for unlawful trafficking in drugs. She was ordered to serve an initial 45 days of a four-year prison term. The remainder of the prison term was suspended, and she was placed on probation for two years.
The three other people arrested Sunday in connection with the shooting had their initial appearances in court Monday.
During one of those hearings, Justice Robert Mullen said the scene seemed “like an old Western shoot-out out in the Wal-Mart parking lot.”
Reginald “Reggie” McBride, 45, of New York City, is charged with reckless conduct with a firearm and aggravated trafficking in heroin. Police said they found a 42-gram block of heroin on him when they searched him. His bail is $50,000 cash.
Frankie Dejesus, 27, of Rochester, New York, is charged with reckless conduct with a firearm and aggravated assault. His bail was set at $25,000 cash.
Diana Davis, 28, of Rochester, New York, is charged with aggravated assault on McBride for allegedly hitting him in the head with the butt of a handgun during a fight that occurred after the shoot-out. Her bail was set at $5,000.
All three defendants remained at the Kennebec County jail Friday afternoon.
Other documents filed in court say Tupper was driving a white Taurus to Wal-Mart when she picked up McBride on Mount Vernon Avenue and two women from a second vehicle, a Volkswagen Passat, also got into Tupper’s vehicle.
The two vehicles then continued to Wal-Mart, parking side by side.
In a media briefing Sunday evening, Augusta police Sgt. Christian Behr said the shooting broke out between people in those cars, prompting 911 calls about shots being fired around 5:24 p.m., and witnesses provided police with vehicle and people descriptions, he said.
After the shots were fired, a physical altercation ensued, which then was interrupted by the armed bystanders.
The Taurus left the scene, and Tupper and McBride were arrested shortly afterward outside her home on Mayflower Road.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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